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Dear Parent,

Welcome to The Cradle, Uganda’s first 24-hour childcare & lactation Centre designed for the workplace.

The vision of The Cradle is a Uganda where women are free to maximize and explore their full potential and still be able to enjoy motherhood by creating safe and easily accessible spaces for childcare and lactation. These spaces allow for women to be fully engaged in pursuing their careers, playing an active role in our country’s governance, economic and democratic processes and influencing the direction of our country without having to make the difficult choice to sacrifice one at the expense of the other.

Uganda has one of the youngest fast-growing populations in the World with 63% of her female workforce of childbearing age. With a fertility rate among the highest at 5.8 children per woman. 63% of women give birth by age 20 years; the average working age commencement. It is predicted in the next 5 years the biggest percentage of Uganda’s working force; women will be of childbearing age. Sadly, 13.4% of these women will most likely face workplace gender disparity in their work life caused by absenteeism due to domestic and childcare requirements.

Furthermore, in the last decade, Uganda has experienced a drastic change in the dynamics of living and working in Uganda. There are more dual-income families due to an increased standard of living. Young adults are pursuing further study to accomplish their career goals and work extra hours and days for financial stability. There is also an increased number of single mother households where cases of child neglect by fathers and failure to offer financial support every year.

Unfortunately, mothers are forced to leave their children with inexperienced, uneducated house-helps, relatives or friends, exposing them to child abuse, violation of their rights, child trafficking and sexual harassment; Mothers are finding it increasingly difficult to focus on their jobs and sometimes opt to leave completely.

Currently, 37% and 29% of the public and private sector of employees are women respectively; a low representation explained by demands attributed to reproductive activities. The Gender and Productivity Survey: Analytical Report Uganda, 2014, states that the presence of young children in the household aged between 0 and 5 years reduces employed women’s productivity by 40% and 79% for full time employed women and self-employed women respectively.

Therefore, employers are faced with the challenge of the recruitment of a productive workforce; with the increased number of women in the workforce of childbearing age, their childcare responsibilities have affected their productivity, increasing staff turnover and absenteeism; a cost to the employer. If policymakers, Government and the private sector do not recognize the time constraints faced by women and design social protection programs for child nurturing activities, the participation of women in the workforce will be reduced even further.

In an aim to provide a solution to this problem, The Cradle opened in June 2014 and since then impacted at least 500 middle class working families in Kampala, who work near or within the central business district. The Cradle serves to benefit employers; parents and their children through the provision of spaces located at workplace premises (onsite), near workplaces (near site) and in residential areas (offsite) around the country, and in all the major districts of Uganda. These spaces are provided to employers at a subsidized cost which the employer then gives to the employee at either full, subsidized or no cost at all as an employee benefit.

Our programs are designed to cater to the developmental needs of children subdivided into four age groups; 0-12 months, 13- 24 months, 25- 36 months and 37- 48 months and so we developed Uganda’s first indigenous 4-part infant play curriculum using child brain stimulation techniques to get our children thinking critically, creatively and to solve problems innovatively preparing them for school and for the competitive World they will live in.

We hope that you will challenge your workplace to subscribe to our services so your children can be enrolled either at our offsite centres or onsite at your workplace and allow us to share the responsibility of raising your child with you because your dreams matter and we can promise that “We’re There When You Can’t Be”

Children see magic because they look for it.

God Given

0-13 Months 3:1 Teacher Ratio

These are new borns to 12 months babies and they use their senses to learn and respond to the new world around them. They start to show early signs of communication through gazes, smiles and noises and their muscles strengthen enabling them to support their body.

At The Cradle, we engage in loads of interaction, visual stimulation, talking; activities that are fascinating for any baby and will enhance their knowledge. Eye contact when talking, singing and feeding the baby strengthens the bond between the baby and their nanny and promotes feelings of stability, security and comfort.

We focus on growing their physical, spiritual and cognitive skills in this period as part of our curriculum

Busy Body

13-24 Months 5:1 Teacher Ratio

These are toddlers aged between 13- 24 months and have gained a better understanding of their surroundings and of their bodies. They are more independent as a result of their growth in confidence and stability. They are getting used to routines and object permanence too.

At the Cradle, we engage in activities that grow their gross motor skills to keep strengthening their larger muscles, and fine motor skills to grow the smaller ones. Their character starts to form in this period and we introduce the character section of the curriculum in addition to the physical, spiritual and cognitive skills. The curriculum uses songs, books and visuals to stimulate language development.

Daring Diamond

37-48 Months 12:1 Teacher Ratio

At this age, many toddlers’ vocabulary is growing bigger with words being linked together to make longer sentences. Their gross motor skills continue to develop through more complicated play including swimming, jumping, climbing and playing with others; sharing and taking turns is challenging and some children prefer independent or parallel play.

They start school in a few months, and our curriculum is focused on preparing them for this next phase of their lives; more emphasis is put on the cognitive component of our curriculum and is done in fun ways; songs, art and craft, imaginative play, etc as they get bored and distracted easily.

Terrific Two

25-36 Months 7:1 Teacher Ratio

Children in this age group grow physically stronger and so does their sense of adventure and desire to explore. Their language further develops and their first words become clear and start to take shape.

However, due to their limited communication skills and an inability to express themselves, throwing tantrums is the only way to communicate decisions for themselves in their new found independence. At this age, the character and spiritual components of our curriculum take a centre stage at this time of their lives.

The Cradle

The Cradle is a twenty four hour (24 hr) childcare service company designed to partner with organisations to support mothers by providing safe and easily accessible spaces for childcare and lactation at the workplace. We offer a nurturing, caring and safe environment for the provision of quality child care for infants and toddlers between zero and forty eight months of age.